Stad (peninsula)


Stad or Stadlandet is a peninsula in Stad Municipality in the northwestern part of the Nordfjord district in Vestland county in Norway. The peninsula is considered the dividing point between the Norwegian Sea to the north and the North Sea to the south. The name is sometimes also written as Stadt, Statt, or Statlandet, because the Norwegian pronunciation of the d in this case is as a t. Some of the larger villages on the peninsula include Ervik, Borgundvåg and Leikanger, and the village of Selje.

Geography

The peninsula is a mountain plateau topped by the Tarvaldsegga peak. There are several lower valleys on the peninsula, but at the western end, the plateau plunges into the sea in a cliff at Kjerringa.
Stad Peninsula has a very harsh, windy climate. The highest wind speed in the country is often recorded at this promontory. Located between the cities of Bergen and Ålesund, this is the only peninsula on the mainland of Norway that goes out into open sea. Most of the rest of the ship route from Bergen to Ålesund is protected by islands. The Svinøy Lighthouse is located north of the peninsula on a small island in the Norwegian Sea.
Because of the harsh climate, the peninsula can be an obstacle for ship transport along the coast of Norway. It is one of the main obstacles preventing a fast-boat passenger route from Bergen to Ålesund, a distance of. Current transportation from Bergen-Ålesund is by air via Oslo, by car, by bus or by the Hurtigruten coastal ferry.
As far back as the 1870s there were plans for the construction of a ship tunnel. A pilot project was developed in 1985, and the development company founded the same year. Plans are currently well underway to build the Stad Ship Tunnel at the narrowest point connecting the Moldefjorden to the Kjødspollen with capacity to take large ships such as the Hurtigruten vessels.

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